We had a theatre full of parents from our school district last week and my message to them was clear: I need your help in line at Safeway and on the sidelines of the soccer fields.

The Safeway and soccer fields message is one I have delivered before. Parents in our community have been outstanding advocates for our local public education system. We can create shiny brochures or interactive websites, but parents want the straight goods from other parents, whether they run into them at the grocery store or at their kids’ practice. I credit positive word-of-mouth for being a key reason for our increase in enrollment over the last decade. The conversations I was asking parents to assist with this time are different. I need their help with revised curriculum that is being rolled out across British Columbia – first in K-9 and then grades 10-12. As I wrote in my last post, there is tremendous positive energy among educators as they work together embracing the new curriculum, and often new approaches, to meet the needs of students.

Positive momentum among educators is great, but I was reminded by Ron Canuel, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Education Association that this is not enough. In a presentation he gave recently, he spoke about changes that were made in Quebec with curriculum a number of years ago. In many ways the shifts resembled those we are making in B.C. He said that the community was never properly brought along on the journey, and the changes were temporary, not permanent, and a more traditional curriculum returned.

So far British Columbia seems to be making the right moves. The curriculum has been co-constructed by educators from across the province, and I have sat in many sessions with post-secondary institutions, the business community and others as the shifts in B.C. curriculum were dissected and where those in the room helped inform the discussion and the changes.

But back to Safeway and the soccer fields. The task I gave our parents is to share some key messages around the curriculum and be myth busters in the community.

Some the messages include:

we are working from a position of strength – we have one of the highest performing systems in the world

foundation skills in literacy and numeracy are still vital and they are not going away with the changes

incorporating Aboriginal perspectives, applying real-life situations to learning, focusing on big ideas and developing core competencies are not new ideas but they are better reflected now in our curriculum

as curriculum shifts, so will assessment and reporting and the K-12 system is working with the post-secondary system and others to ensure there is alignment

The session we held last week with parents was inspiring. Our Director of Instruction Lynne Tomlinson spoke about “B.C.’s Curriculum from 30,000 feet” and then 4 teams of school administrators shared different aspects of the work. While the rich discussion was an obvious highlight, I have included the presentations below – please feel free to use them and share them (if you receive this post via email you may need to open the website to see the presentations).

I have read some speculation about educational change regarding education’s future, that it will be less creative and the arts will be marginalized. The speculative thought goes something like this — with increased personalization of education increased reliance on technology follows, which will lead to increased narrowing of curriculum and that will lead to students spending less time in areas like dance, drama, music and the visual arts.

I don’t see this happening. I see a future with fewer arts classes but much richer engagement in the arts.

While many point to examples like High Tech High, with its rich integration of subjects and different curriculum areas, in many ways we are challenging traditional classroom learning; an example is the work led by Katherine Tong and her team connected with the Vancouver Biennale — a powerful legacy to the exhibition in the Vancouver area.

The BIG IDEAS Program, which is the educational program that has accompanied the Vancouver Biennale Exhibition, has made its way into seven school districts and 63 schools (including West Vancouver) and reaching more than 4200 students. UBC has now included the program as part of teacher practicums, and the program has been awarded the Arts Champion in Education Award. The program allows students to engage with the art and local artists and share their interpretations to a broad audience.

Here is a recent presentation Katherine Tong shared with me about the program:

And, a recently posted video describing some of the links of the program to self-regulation:

There are a number of things I really like about this program, including:

Teachers have the opportunity to collaborate within and across schools

Students interact with practising artists

There is an emphasis on production and performance

Classes are not only in schools, but in the community where the art is as well

Curriculum is organized around ‘big ideas’ and educators have put together thoughtful work which is shared with others

There is natural integration of outcomes from a variety of disciplines

The school and the community are true partners in education

Goals like self-regulation are promoted and activity-based

Schools reap the benefit of community expertise

We may have fewer stand-alone art classes in five years time than we do today. Hopefully, we will also have fewer stand-alone English, Social Studies, Math and Science classes as well. The move to creating meaningful linkages in curriculum fosters opportunities like those of the Vancouver Biennale Program. While there is no crystal ball to see what the future of teaching and learning looks like, I would like to suggest it looks more like what this program offers, and we need stellar examples like these programs to show and move the way forward.

As the Vancouver Biennale rightfully claims – they are “redefining the experience of art” and in doing so they are contributing to the redefinition of the learning and schooling experience for many of our students.